Edward Emerson '63: "Hellbent for leather" towards Olympic gold

For most athletes, world-class competition after age 40 is a dream, more likely enjoyed in the role of trainer, coach, or spectator. Unless, of course, you happen to be Edward Emerson '63 and have your eye on the 1984 Olympic trials and, perhaps, your first Olympic gold medal.

Age cannot be taken lightly in Emerson's dangerous sport. But it can be an advantage, provided the athlete works extra-hard to stay in shape. "Denny" Emerson sees to that with a rigid, self-imposed schedule that has him pushing from dawn to dusk, day in and day out, on the rugged New England terrain.

Emerson is an equestrian, one of the best, a specialist in the fearsome "three-day event" the horse world's equivalent of the decathlon.

High-speed riding ("hellbent for leather" in rider's parlance) over open fields and high fences plus miles of disciplined trotting make the three-day event a rigorous test of rider and beast. A rider over 40 years old, even 50 or 60, may well have the wisdom, experience, and touch required - but had also better have the physical condition and endurance of a man or woman half the age.

One rider and one horse represent each team. The first day is dedicated to "dressage," the art of controlling one's horse without a single spoken command. The second day focuses on speed and strength - 20 miles' worth, with four miles devoted to a wild, galloping steeplechase and another four to a cross-country run over the most difficult obstacles. For the horse and rider who make it to the third day, there is the opportunity to display the skills of showjumping.

Emerson has one gold medal, which he won in a thrilling competition in 1974 as a member of the United States Equestrian Team in world championship competition. He came close to earning Olympic gold in 1976, but his horse went lame and his U.S. teammates had to win it without him. And he was an assistant coach for the 1978 team which captured a bronze medal in the world championships. So now Emerson yearns for a crack at the top Olympic prize in 1984; but whatever the outcome, he's sure to have a lot to do with whatever success the U.S. attains.

For Emerson has had a major influence on American equitation, as an eventer for 20 years, as two-time national three-day event champion, as founder of a respected national training farm, and, most recently, as president of the U.S. Combined Training Association.

Emerson was born in Beverly, MA, and began riding seriously at the age of nine in Greenfield, MA. He was a junior in College when he began eventing, and by his senior year he was boarding a horse in Norwich. "In those days," says Emerson, "the U.S. was way behind in world competition. Today we're right up there in the top three with England and Germany."

After graduation, he taught school for a few years in Far Hills, NJ, while also working out with the U.S. Equestrian Team in Gladstone, NJ.

Then in 1970, Emerson moved to Strafford, VT, a picturesque village 16 miles from Hanover. He purchased the Tamarack Hill Farm, with a 19th-century barn and 400 acres of lush fields and woods. His goal was to build a modern riding center.

With May, his wife of one year, he went to work, renovating the old barn and putting in 13 stalls and a tackroom. He also built a new main barn with 12 stalls and a wash stall and attached an insulated and heated indoor arena with an office, another tackroom, and a large lounge and viewing area. In another wooded area, he constructed a 12-stall barn for summer riding. Throughout the acreage, he placed dressage rings, jumping arenas, galloping tracks, cross-country fences, and even a oneacre swimming pond with a dock.

Emerson's Shangri-la became his personal training camp as well as a center for other serious riders and for the breeding, training, and sale of horses.

Today the farm schools some 30 to 35 aspiring riders in the summer and about a dozen students year-round. Students can come for any length of time and design their own programs, which may include actual coaching at competitions. Many of Emerson's students defray their expenses by helping with the farm chores.

Emerson personally does the teaching with assistance from Alix Nelson, an English- trained instructor. His wife May, an accomplished rider herself, handles the business management. Other noted equestrians come to Strafford from time to time as guest instructors.

Emerson himself is a guest instructor at clinics around the world. This past year he has traveled to England, Ireland, and Brazil, and in the U.S. to California, Colorado, Wyoming, Maryland, and Kentucky.

May travels to competitions with her husband, but their two sons, Jamie, eight, and Rett, ten, stick by the farm, attend public school in Strafford, and, according to the Emersons, "play a lot of baseball."

Despite his hectic schedule, Emerson maintains close ties with the College and is an advisor to the Dartmouth riding program.

Life in the saddle, he notes, has many high moments. But Emerson's biggest thrill has to have been the U.S. upset - the first in 30 years of the British before a crowd of some 250,000 at the 1974 world championship trials at Burghley Castle. Princess Anne rode as an individual, and her husband, Mark Phillips, was on the British team along with Britain's top male rider, Richard Meade.

With that memory among many others, Emerson looks toward the 1984 Olympics and the opportunity to ride "hellbent for leather" onto more fields, over more meadows, and into another decade of world-class riding.

Edward ''Denny" Emerson '63, who has taken many a fence in his stride during his yean as aworld-class rider, gathers in his mount as he heads for yet another obstacle on a jump course.